Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well.
If you’re familiar with the channel, you’ve probably noticed that I’m not the person
who usually does the audio recordings.
I’ve pinned a comment that explains the change.
Here we go.
To answer whether the gods or goddesses are more powerful in Greek mythology, in my opinion,
you really have to look at the Greek pantheon through a granular lens, breaking down the
whole into groups, then looking at each group in turn,
because some groups have more powerful goddesses and, conversely, some groups have more powerful
gods.
After examining each group by itself, we’ll look at everything in the aggregate to see
if an overarching conclusion one way or the other can be drawn.
We’re going to approach this top to bottom, meaning we’ll begin with the Primordial
deities and we’ll end with the second and third generation titans.
I’ll be choosing who I think the most power deity is or deities are in each group
Here’s how I’ve broken down the constellation of gods comprised by the Greek pantheon, segmenting
the collective into groups that can more easily be evaluated:
The Primordial Deities that exists as constructs of the world
The Children of Nyx The 12 first-generation Titans
The first six gods born to Rhea and Cronus The Children of these first six gods
And finally, the second and third generation Titans
And just one final comment: we won’t be discussing deities from any of the mystery
religions, meaning gods like Zagreus, the original incarnation of Dionysius in Orphism,
won’t make an appearance.
As well, we won’t be discussing unborn gods who would have become extremely powerful,
such as the two sons Zeus would have sired by Metis and Thetis, both of whom were destined
to become more powerful than their father were they to be born and grow into manhood.
Let’s get into it.
Starting us off are the Primordial Deities
Of the Primordial Deities that exist as constructs of the world, the first four, Chaos, the great
void, Gaia, the earth, Tartarus, the great chasm beneath the earth, and Eros, the power
of procreation, were all self-engendered.
After them are the children of Chaos and of Gaia.
From Chaos came Erebus, darkness, and Nyx, night, and from Gaia, came Uranus, the sky,
Ourea, mountains, and Pontus, the sea.
Many of these are scarcely personified, almost exclusively existing as places, not as sentient
gods, and are largely absent from Greek mythology beyond existing in the background as fundamental
constructs of the material world - here helping to quickly narrow our list of candidates.
I believe there are four primordial deities that stand above the rest in power: Chaos,
Uranus, Gaia, and Nyx.
Addressing Chaos, it either doesn’t have a gender, neither male nor female, or I just
haven’t found a reliable source that gives it a gender.
In Hesiod’s theogony, the oldest surviving source that gives an account of the ancient
Greek creation myth, Chaos’ gender is indiscernible, as can be seen from the main passage that
pertains to it:
“First came the Chasm; and then broad-breasted Earth, secure seat for ever of all the immortals
who occupy the peak of snowy Olympus…
Out of Chasm came Erebus and dark Night.``
Furthermore, all of the secondary sources I rely on don’t assign a gender to Chaos,
conspicuously missing male or female pronouns.
Anyway, the point of this long-winded tangent is that because Chaos can’t be said, unequivocally
speaking, to be male or female, we can’t categorize it as either a god or goddess,
placing its procreative power beyond the scope of this video.
Addressing Uranus, yes, he was the one time king of the cosmos, and yes, he smothered
Gaia in a perpetual sexual embrace, keeping her children trapped inside of her, a plight
she couldn’t independently extricate herself from;
however, I don’t think he’s as powerful as either Gaia, who independently produced
him, who created the element of grey adamant, and who contrived for him to be castrated,
or as powerful as Nyx, who, in the Iliad, is described as being so powerful than Zeus
was loath to challenge her and provoke her wrath.
I would say the most powerful Primordials are Gaia and Nyx.
Gaia is self-engendered; she is the embodiment of the whole earth; she independently produced
all the mountains and seas of the world, as well as the sky; and when her ire is aroused,
she’s more than capable of producing incredibly powerful monsters, such as typhon or the Giants,
to deal out death and destruction on her behalf.
Similarly, Nyx is also one of the great matriarchs of Greek mythology, independently producing
a multitude of powerful children, and as said, even mighty Zeus was reluctant to bring himself
into conflict with her.
Up next we have Nyx’s children.
Here, we’re only looking at the children Nyx independently produced, not at Hemera,
day, and Aether, the bright upper sky, both of them born to Nyx and Erebus.
These independently produced children include: Moros, impending doom, the inexorable force
that led people to their inevitable ends, keres, spirits or goddesses of violent death,
Thanatos, death itself, Hypnos, sleep, the Oneiroi, dreams, Momus, mockery and blame,
Geras, old age, Oizys, misery, distress, suffering, and woe, Nemesis, divine retribution,
Philotes, affection, Apate, guile, deceit, and deception, Eris, discord and strife, and
the Moirai, goddesses of fate, as well as others less germane to our discussion,
like the Hesperides, the group of nymphs entrusted to tend the trees that bore golden apples,
and Charon, the ferryman who transported the spirits of the dead across, depending on the
version, either the river Acheron or the river Styx.
Here, I think the most powerful deities are the three Moirai, better known as the fates:
Clotho, she who spins the thread, Lachesis, she who measures the thread, and Atropos,
she who cannot be turned, this last an epithetical allusion to the inescapability of destiny.
Fate, basically the totality of what will and will not come to pass, is all encompassing,
affecting immortal and divine alike, from the lowliest peasant hovel to the very halls
of lofty Olympus,
assigning destinies to both men and gods.
Even mighty Zeus, in most cases, is powerless against the decree of fate, as is demonstrated
in the Iliad when he’s either unwilling or unable to save Hector,
whom he did not want to see fall to Achilles’ onslaught, as he did not want to see Troy
reduced to rubble, for its denizens venerated Zeus, sacrificing to him regularly.
However, there are also accounts that fly in the face of this, because Zeus is also
sometimes called Zeus Moiragetes, meaning something like ‘the god of fate’ or ‘the
leader of the fates’.
Adding further confusion is that Hesiod gives two accounts of the Fate’s parentage in
Theogony: first as the daughters of Nyx, then as the daughters of Zeus and Themis.
Regardless, whether separate from Zeus or subordinate to Zeus, I believe the fates to
be the most powerful of Nyx’s children.
This takes us to the 12 first-generation Titans.
Of the 12 first-generation Titans, I believe the most powerful to be Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion,
Themis, Rhea and of course, Cronus.
Oceanus, the eldest of the Titans, the first born son, was the personification of the great
river that encircled the earth.
His consort, Tethys, was the font of fresh water that was the ultimate source from which
the rivers of the world flowed.
To them were born the Oceanids, a group of 3,000 water nymphs, and all of the rivers
of the world.
Hyperion was an early solar deity, and his children personified the most important celestial
objects that graced the sky: Helios, the sun, Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn.
Themis was the personification of custom and law, especially as structured and enforced
by gods and nature.
She was Zeus’ second wife, and many children were born to them, including, Eirene, ‘Peace’,
Horae, Seasons, Eunomia, good order, dike, justice, and in one contradicting account
featured in Theogony, the Moirai, fates.
Even after their marriage ran its course, Themis and Zeus continued to work closely
together, her helping him to maintain the ideals of righteousness and good governance.
It was said she even sat on a throne next to him.
The last two in this group are Rhea and Cronus.
Rhea is a goddess who fits the earth-mother archetype, linked with life and fertility
and, to some extent, death, as all living things die - that is, unless they’re divine.
She’s the mother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter.
Cronus is the youngest and most important of the first-generation titans.
He ambushes his father and castrates him with an adamantine sickle, thereby usurping him,
becoming the new king of the cosmos,
a position he maintains until the Titanomachy, the war against Zeus and the gods.
After 10 years of war, Cronus and the other belligerent titans who fought beside him were
defeated, condemned to eternal imprisonment in the abyssal depths of Tartarus.
There are definitely some powerful goddesses here, but I think it has to be said that,
of the first-generation titans, the male deities are more powerful than their female counterparts,
this assessment predicated on Oceanus being the eldest, a major sire, and a significant
personification of the material world, and Cronus, the king of the titans, who castrates
his father to seize the throne, and leads the titans in the war against the gods.
Up next we have Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter: the six gods born to
Cronus and Rhea.
Despite there being some interesting conversations to be had about who is the most powerful god
in the Greek pantheon, the fact remains that, by and large,
Zeus is said to be the most powerful God in Greek mythology - his two brothers, Poseidon
and Hades, also extremely powerful.
Each of them has a superlative, signature weapon (respectively, the lighting bolt, trident,
and helm of darkness);
they banded together to defeat and overthrow the Titans in a 10 year war; and they rule
creation itself: Zeus, the sky, Poseidon, the sea, and Hades, the underworld, the three
of them sharing stewardship of the earth,
which is ultimately left to Gaia.
Certainly, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter are all very powerful goddesses, but here, their male
counterparts overshadow them.
This takes us to the children born to the six gods just discussed.
Here, I’ve chosen Athena for reasons I’ll expound on presently, but this choice might
not sit well with some people, who perhaps would choose Apollo or some other god.
Athena was born to Zeus and Metis, though her birth was far from what could be described
as standard.
Zeus learnt of a prophecy that told of Metis bearing extremely powerful children: first
a daughter, wise and strong, then a son who would become more powerful than him, who would
be able to challenge him for the throne of creation, claiming it.
To forestall such an eventuality, Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant with their first
child, thinking to preempt the birth of any children by consuming the mother.
Later, an exquisite pain pierced his head like the tip of a white-hot blade.
On his request, Hephaestus split his skull with an axe, cleaving it open, and out sprung
Athena, a woman grown, furnished with both armor and weapon.
She was among the wisest of the gods, and her prowess in battle was beyond question,
both distinguishing herself in the Gigantomachy, the war against the giants, and trouncing
Ares in single combat, reducing him to a crumpled heap.
In many ways she was the spitting image of Zeus, who favored her greatly, but a goddess,
not a god, and not quite as powerful.
We’re going to wrap up this video by looking at the second and third generation titans.
Here, two names, Atlas and Hecate, really jumped out at me, and we’re going to look
at both of them in turn.
Atlas was the son of Iapetus, a first generation titan, and was the brother of Prometheus and
Epimetheus, respectively, forethought and afterthought.
Unlike the other titans who fought against Zeus during the Titanomachy, Atlas wasn’t
condemned to eternal imprisonment in Tartarus.
Instead, because he was such an implacable enemy - him being wise in counsel, an adept
strategist, and of great prowess as a warrior - Zeus saw fit to single him out and saddle
him with a bespoke punishment: to become the living pillar that would stabilize creation,
keeping earth and sky separate, forever trapped between these two planes like some creature
constantly beset by two crushing cosmic palms.
Hecate was the daughter of two second-generation Titans, Asteria and Perses.
Her powers, both in breadth and potency, were prodigious, and as she was greatly favored
by Zeus - by some accounts favored above all others.
She maintained great preeminence, bestowed with wide-ranging authority over the many
realms of the living world: sky, earth, and sea.
Success in virtually every aspect of a person’s life was linked to her, contingent on her
beneficence, for she granted wealth and luck, victory, both in battle and competition, flock
fecundity, full nets and heavy hooks for fisherman, wise, judicial judgement for kings, and vigor
for children.
However, all of the boons she graced humanity with notwithstanding, it is her darker aspects
that are best remembered today, being linked with witchcraft and necromancy and being a
goddess of crossroads and transitions.
Now, with all of these different groups considered, let’s do a quick tally:
The Primordial Deities that exists as constructs of the world - GODDESSES
The Children of Nyx - GODDESSES The 12 first-generation Titans - GODS
The first six gods born to Rhea and Cronus - GODS
The Children of these six gods - GODDESSES And the Second and third generation Titans
- I’M GOING TO GO WITH A TIE
Overall, I would say it’s a fairly even split.
An interesting observation I have is that the gods are more powerful than the goddesses
when the groups they feature in more closely parallel how humanity's own power hierarchy
was structured.
Cronus was the king of creation, so he was the most powerful of the 12 first-generation
titans, just as the king of an ancient Greek nation would be the most powerful person in
his domain; and likewise, as Zeus was Cronus’ usurper, himself becoming king of creation,
so was he the most powerful of the Olympians.
Of course, this pattern doesn’t apply to Gaia and Uranus, Gaia being more powerful
than her consort; however, the two of them existed as material constructs, not as what
you could call persons in the same Zeus or Cronus could be, meaning that, despite Uranus
once being the king of creation, he’s not really comparable to humanity.
And that’s it for this video.
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